ALBANY, N.Y. — Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday pushed for independent redistricting of legislative districts in a move that would abolish a powerful tool that majorities in the Assembly and Senate have used for decades to protect their power.

Cuomo’s bill would create an independent, bi-partisan commission free of conflicts of interests with input from public hearings. The bill provides a radically new way to complete the process of redrawing state and congressional election districts.

Updating district boundaries is required every 10 years using new Census data in part to assure racial minorities have a voice. Traditionally, the majorities in Albany have drawn the districts for their chamber and the majority in the other chamber supports it, with a bill signed into law by the governor.

Cuomo said his method would replace “a process that has been widely criticized for placing political considerations that protect incumbent office-holders and partisan objectives above the people’s interest in fair and equal representation.“

Cuomo, a former state attorney general, had promised during his campaign for the governor’s office last fall that he would veto lines drawn by the majorities to protect their power. That would leave the Legislature with an unlikely option of attempting an override in which the majorities would require several minority party lawmakers to join them. Without agreement, a court would draw the districts, an option that provides leverage for Cuomo to get cooperation from legislative leaders.

The leaders of the Republican majority in the Senate and the Democratic majority in the Assembly were noncommittal on Cuomo’s proposal Thursday, but spokesmen said the majorities are interested in looking at redistricting proposals before the process begins in the coming months.

Cuomo’s announcement also is the latest push against the Senate’s Republican majority, which had been the earliest and strongest supporter for his economic platform.

“I have said repeatedly that we will act on reform legislation,“ said Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, a Nassau County Republican. “A number of proposals have been advanced, and we have to take a close look at what makes the most sense to ensure a fair, open and truly nonpartisan process.“

During the campaign, when every Senate Republican immediately signed the pledge of New York Uprising and criticized the Democrats then in the majority for taking weeks to sign it, the GOP majority insisted its commitment “is real, it’s genuine.“ A week ago, Skelos told reporters he would try to find a way to do independent redistricting, but he insists his top priority must be the budget due April 1.

Senate Democratic leader John Sampson said the “time has come for pledges to become promises kept.“

Sen. Diane Savino, a Staten Island Democrat and a member of the independent Democratic caucus that split from Sampson, said she thinks it’s exactly what Democrats need to do. “We would look like a bunch of idiots if we didn’t do it,“ she said. “It’s one of the things I found quite frustrating in the Democratic conference. We always campaigned on this, but when we were in the majority we didn’t do it.“

Like Skelos, Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver issued a short written response. “We are reviewing the governor’s program bill and remain committed to working with the governor and our colleagues in the Senate to reform redistricting in time for the upcoming redistricting process,“ Silver’s spokeswoman Sisa Moyo said.

On those two powerful leaders hangs the issue that good-government groups said for decades has been at the heart of Albany’s dysfunction by protecting majority power even from voters. Despite low public opinion of the Legislature in polls, individual lawmakers enjoy about a 90-percent return rate.

The legislative director of the New York Public Interest Research Group said the Legislature “has never been enthusiastic about redistricting.“ “What will drive the debate is they believe Cuomo will veto the lines“ if drawn by the majorities to protect their power, NYPIRG’s Blair Horner said.

Major provisions of Cuomo’s bill are similar to the bill already sponsored and introduced by Sen. Michael Gianaris, a Queens Democrat. They include:
• A clear prohibition of drawing lines that favor or hurt any incumbent, presumed candidate or party.
• Congressional districts would be nearly equal in population.
• The most populous and least populous Senate and Assembly districts would have to be within 1 percent of the mean population of districts in each chamber, as opposed to 5 percent.
• Districts will be “united communities of interest“ that could include cultural interests, and few counties could be divided.

But each provision includes some slack, which Cuomo notes with phrases such as “to the extent practicable.“

Still, the system would eliminate many of the obvious contortions to find pockets of voters in the same party as the majority. The results were oddly shaped districts like the 34th Senate District, which includes the Bronx and Westchester, with some of New York’s poorest and richest neighborhoods. NYPIRG has dubbed it the “Oops, I Spilled My Coffee on the Map“ district.